de by a
fish, and nothing is said of any islands. What do you think of this,
captain Gar'ner?" laying his finger on the precise spot where the deacon
had been at work so long that very morning erasing the islands. "This
looks well-fingered, if nothing else, eh?"

"Its a shoal laid down in dirt," answered Roswell Gardiner,
laughing--"Let's see; that's about lat. -- deg. --", and long. -- deg. --". There
can be no known land thereaway, as even captain Cook did not succeed in
getting as far south. That's been a favourite spot with the skipper for
taking hold of his chart. I've known one of those old-fashioned chaps put
his hand on a chart, in that way, and never miss his holding ground for
three years on a stretch. Mighty go-by-rule people are some of our
whaling-masters, in particular, who think they know the countenances of
some of the elderly fish, who are too cunning to let a harpoon get fast to
'em."

"You've been often in them seas, I some think, captain Gar'ner?" said the
other, inquiringly.

"I was brought up in the business, and have a hankering for it yet,"
returned the young man, frankly. "Nor do I care so much for charts. They
are well enough when a vessel is on her road; but, as for whales or seals,
the man who wishes to find either, in these times, has to look for them,
as I tell my owner. According to reports, the time has been when a craft
had only to get an offing to fall in with something that was worth putting
a harpoon into; but those days are gone, captain Daggett; and whales are
to be looked after, out at sea, much as money is to be looked for ashore
here."

"Is the craft I saw at the wharf fitting out for a whaler, then?"

"She is going after luck, and will accept of it, in whatever form it may
turn up."

"She is rather small for the whaling business, though vessels of that
size _have_ done well, by keeping close in upon our own coast."

"We shall know better what she will do after she has been tried," returned
Gardiner, evasively. "What do you think of her for the Banks of
Newfoundland?"

The Martha's Vineyard-man gave his brother tar a quick, impatient glance,
which pretty plainly said, "tell that to the marines," when he opened the
second chart, which as yet had been neglected.

"Sure enough," he muttered, in a low tone, though loud enough to be heard
by the keenly attentive deacon; "here it is--a chart of the West Indies,
and of all the keys!"

By this casual, spontaneous outbreaking